Higgins ESB
Ram Restaurant & Brewery
- From:
- Ram Restaurant & Brewery
- Washington, United States
- Style:
- Extra Special / Strong Bitter (ESB)
- ABV:
- Not listed
- Score:
- +9 ratings needed
- Avg:
- 3.42 | pDev: 0%
- Ratings:
- | reviews: 1
- Status:
- Retired
- Rated:
- Sep 05, 2009
- Added:
- Sep 05, 2009
- Wants:
- 0
- Gots:
- 0
NO SCORE
-
-
No description / notes.
Recent ratings and reviews.
Reviewed by Florida9 from Illinois
3.42/5 rDev 0%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 3
3.42/5 rDev 0%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 3
I'm always hesitant to get the new beers at Ram, because they ten to be worse than the regular offerings. But I was intrigued to see an ESB on the menu. When I asked the bartender about, she noted it was an "Extra Special Bitter" (no shit, really?), but instead of actually trying to describe the beer she just gave me a sample. I enjoyed the sample, so I filled the growler. (OT, but growlers are now $6 on Fridays. WTF?)
However, this beer is a bit bipolar. The problem with this beer is that it is almost two different beers. When the beer is first poured, its not a bad beer. But within just a couple of minutes, this beer is flat and everything changes with the flavor going from lively and active to flat and lifeless.
As soon as I got home (within minutes) I filled a couple of American pint glasses. The beer had a substantial two fingers of extra-foamy, whitish head, though the head reduced quickly to just a surface coating. Color is dark gold to amber. There is some chill haze.
The aroma is actually quite impressive for a Ram beer, being full of hop character. Citrus and grapefruit notes predominate.
The flavor is where things start to stray. At first, there is a nice balance between the smooth, easy going malts and a mild hop bitterness on the finish. There's a little butter, but not enough to throw this beer off. It's not an overly complex beer, but its a decent beer. However, within a couple of minutes, this beer is virtually flat. The mouthfeel becomes extra smooth, velvety, and almost syrupy (its not dense enough to really be syrupy) and the flavor moves to being of mildly sweet maltiness, the butter becomes more pronounced and any hop character that was originally present has left along with the carbonation.
Overall, this is a fairly average beer and not one I'd be coming back to. Ram has better offerings (thats not saying much), that I'd rather quaff on a Friday night. And while I recognize ESB's aren't supposed to highly carbonated, they're also not supposed to be flat, malty messes either.
Sep 05, 2009However, this beer is a bit bipolar. The problem with this beer is that it is almost two different beers. When the beer is first poured, its not a bad beer. But within just a couple of minutes, this beer is flat and everything changes with the flavor going from lively and active to flat and lifeless.
As soon as I got home (within minutes) I filled a couple of American pint glasses. The beer had a substantial two fingers of extra-foamy, whitish head, though the head reduced quickly to just a surface coating. Color is dark gold to amber. There is some chill haze.
The aroma is actually quite impressive for a Ram beer, being full of hop character. Citrus and grapefruit notes predominate.
The flavor is where things start to stray. At first, there is a nice balance between the smooth, easy going malts and a mild hop bitterness on the finish. There's a little butter, but not enough to throw this beer off. It's not an overly complex beer, but its a decent beer. However, within a couple of minutes, this beer is virtually flat. The mouthfeel becomes extra smooth, velvety, and almost syrupy (its not dense enough to really be syrupy) and the flavor moves to being of mildly sweet maltiness, the butter becomes more pronounced and any hop character that was originally present has left along with the carbonation.
Overall, this is a fairly average beer and not one I'd be coming back to. Ram has better offerings (thats not saying much), that I'd rather quaff on a Friday night. And while I recognize ESB's aren't supposed to highly carbonated, they're also not supposed to be flat, malty messes either.
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